1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device for cleaning show soles with at least one cleaning element and at least one base element as support for the shoe sole, whereby the shoe sole can be cleaned/cleansed by a relative motion carried out with direct effect between the shoe sole and the cleaning element. In addition, the invention relates to a method for cleaning shoe soles, whereby the shoe sole is placed on a base element and is cleaned/cleansed by a relative motion carried out with direct effect between the shoe soles and a cleaning element.
2. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
Various devices for cleaning shoe soles/shoes are known in the state of the art.
On the one hand, shoe scrapers/door mats are very common in the state of the art. The typically known shoe scrapers/door mats are situated in front of the entry area of a house or apartment door on the ground and usually have a rough surface. Grooves, bumps or bristles are usually provided on the surface, so the user can accordingly clean his shoe soles with the help of the shoe scraper/door mat before he enters the house or apartment area. For this, the user brushes with the shoe on his foot, namely with the shoe sole, over the surface of the shoe scraper/door mat, whereby a relative motion effective directly between the shoe sole and the cleaning element is then created between the surface of the door mat, which can be generally designated as a cleaning element, and the shoe sole. In this way, the dirt particles clinging to the shoe sole are detached from the shoe sole by the cleaning element and remain on the surface of the shoe scraper/door mat, namely usually remaining sticking to the cleaning element. To increase the cleaning effect of a shoe scraper/door mat, it is also known that the shoe scraper/door mat is coated with a corresponding protective layer e.g. with a moistened absorber, to ensure with the moistened absorber, for example, that larger quantities of dirt particles clinging to the shoe soles are picked up by the cleaning element/by the coat.
On the other hand, in the state of the art devices for cleaning shoes are known, referred to as automatic shoe-cleaners, that are usually very common in hotels. These automatic shoe-cleaners often located in the hallways of hotels have, in the bottom area, a usually roundly designed, pivoted cleaning element. If the user, in particular the hotel guest, then wishes to clean/cleanse his shoes, he starts the automatic shoe-cleaner accordingly, in such a way that the cleaning element designed as a type of roller rotates at a certain speed. The user can then clean the surfaces of his shoes by bringing the corresponding shoe into contact with the rotating cleaning element, in such a way that due to the relative motion carried out with direct effect between the surfaces of the shoes and the cleaning element, namely the rotation of the cleaning element, the dirt particles clinging to the surface of the shoes are removed. Although the automatic shoe-cleaners mentioned here are not intended for the users to clean the shoe soles of their shoes but rather only the surface of the shoes, practical experience has shown that particularly hotel guests tend to also clean the shoe soles of their shoes using the automatic shoe cleaners described here.
In the state of the art on which the invention is based, devices for cleaning shoes are known that have several cleaning elements, designed as continuous belts, with bristles, whereby the cleaning elements are motor-driven in a base element or run around a base element. These devices have a certain, limited width and are usually arranged in front of businesses or stores in the entry area. The customer entering the store/business walks over the base element which is fixed in position, whereby, during the brief walking on the base element/the support of the shoe sole on the base element, the elongated designed, motor-driven cleaning elements clean the customer's shoe sole/shoe soles before he enters the store/the business.
The devices known in the state of the art for cleaning shoe soles are not designed optimally. Practical experience has shown that even if the user tries to carefully clean his shoe soles--larger dirt particles remain clinging to the shoe soles, whereby the corresponding house or apartment area is soiled in the end, because dirt particles clinging to the shoe soles often detach from the shoe soles only later. These problems are in particular attributable to the fact that a user standing on the shoe scraper/door mat can always clean only the shoe soles of one shoe, namely by first shifting his body weight almost completely onto one foot and thus onto one shoe sole and trying to move the other shoe sole less loaded by body weight back and forth and/or to accordingly brush it over the shoe scraper/door mat. So that the other shoe sole of the two shoes can be cleaned shortly thereafter, there takes place a corresponding shifting of the user's body weight onto the shoe sole already cleaned, at least in the heel, whereby he then carries out the same motion with the shoe sole yet to be cleaned. Practical experience has shown that in particular due to the low body weight load on the shoe sole to be cleaned, the relative motion carried out with direct effect between the shoe sole and the cleaning element is often not sufficient to remove all dirt particles clinging to the shoe sole. In particular, due to the low body weight load/the pressure by load on the shoe sole to be cleaned, no sufficient friction is present between the shoe sole and the cleaning element, in such a way that the cleaning effect is not optimal. Furthermore, when brushing a shoe sole on a shoe scraper it is problematic that the user brushes the feet in longitudinal direction although the profile--with crosswise grooves--of the shoe soles would be better cleaned by brushing the shoe soles in crosswise direction. Yet a brushing of the shoe soles in crosswise direction is not carried out by the user, in particular because this represents an unusual and uncomfortable motion for him/for his foot.
The cleaning effect of the devices known in the state of the art, which have a stationary base element and motor-driven cleaning elements designed as continuous belts, is not optimal either. On the one hand, the user walks on the base element only very briefly and tries--as practical experience has shown--to quickly enter the store/business in the entrances of which such devices are provided. Users regard such devices with a certain "skepticism". Because they at first notice the motor-driven cleaning elements designed as continuous belts. The users sometimes feel inhibited from walking on these devices, which is naturally understandable, because one does not wish to walk on a moving element, in order to run the risk of losing his balance and falling. It has even already occurred that users try to circumvent or to step over as quickly as possible such devices, i.e., the cleaning elements moving before their eyes, in order to have "solid ground" under their feet again as soon as possible. For these reasons, the period of time in which the users' shoe soles touch the motor-driven cleaning elements is relatively brief, in such a way that the cleaning effect is no optimal due to the brief contact time of the cleaning elements with the shoe soles.
The invention is therefore based on the technical problem of designing and further developing the known device for cleaning shoe soles/the known method for cleaning shoe soles in such a way that the cleaning effect on the shoe soles is increased.